


Find that Peace of Mind

by VileVenom



Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Gen, Post-Hellbent, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-26
Updated: 2018-10-26
Packaged: 2019-08-07 16:56:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16412345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VileVenom/pseuds/VileVenom
Summary: Tumblr quote prompt: "I'm telling you. I'm haunted."“Arthur,” she sighed, lifting her glasses to rub at the bridge of her nose, “We live with a ghost. Of course we’re haunted.”





	Find that Peace of Mind

**Author's Note:**

> Haha, I'm rushing to post this because I need to get ready for work. Whoops.
> 
> Also, as usual, I don't have a beta, so please let me know of any glaring errors I need to fix. Thanks!

“I’m telling you, Vivi. I’m haunted.”

Vivi arched an eyebrow as she stared Arthur down with a look that quite plainly said ‘well, duh’. “Arthur,” she sighed, lifting her glasses to rub at the bridge of her nose, “We live with a ghost. Of course we’re haunted.”

“That’s not what I mean, and you know it,” Arthur hissed, scowling as he scooped Galahad up from the floor before he could get into trouble. “I keep finding things in weird places that I never left them. My favorite pin has gone missing!” He gestured emphatically at his left breast where his star pin usually sat in a place of pride on his vest. “Do you really think Lewis would screw with me like that? It’s not exactly his style, even if he hasn’t completely forgiven me, yet.”

“Have you perhaps thought about checking Galahad’s cage for your pin? And that maybe you just forget where you’ve left things? You’re still not exactly getting enough sleep, Artie,” Vivi said, prodding the blonde in the chest to make a point. “And given that I’m the one saying this, you should really take it to heart. You can’t blame everything on ghosts.” With that Vivi yanked Arthur down by the front of his shirt so she could ruffle his hair, before trotting off to the kitchen where Lewis was currently trying to get back into cooking with mixed results thus far.

“I’m not that forgetful,” Arthur muttered, glancing down at Galahad, who stared right back and offered a quiet squeak in reply, “Am I?”

Back in his room, Arthur began the arduous task of methodically taking apart Galahad’s cage to try and find his pin, using it as a good excuse to give the hamster’s cage a thorough cleaning while he was at it. When that resulted in nothing but an extremely clean cage and a happy hamster, Arthur was certain Vivi was wrong, and something had to be up. After all, his star pin never left his vest; not since he’d gotten it as a gift from Lewis years previous, back before the Mystery Skulls were even a thing. Though, to be sure, and to keep Vivi from throwing some more ‘logic’ in his face, he scoured the rest of his room from top to bottom to make sure it hadn’t come loose and fallen somewhere.

“Nowhere to be found,” Arthur grumbled, plucking at the empty spot on his vest, glaring around his room, which now looked even more a mess than usual, besides Galahad’s cage, where the hamster was happily snoozing under a hide. “And I know it has to be somewhere, because it was on my vest when I took it off last night,” he continued to mutter to himself as he walked out of his room, eyes glued to the floor to see if it had fallen anywhere in the apartment. This was, perhaps, not the best course of action when one of the residents of said apartment didn’t usually walk around and his feet were often half a foot off the floor.

“Arthur!” Lewis squawked as the blonde smacked into his currently corporeal form, cookies scattering to the floor as Arthur fell backwards and the tray Lewis had been carrying crashed to the ground. Arthur reacted in reflexive fear as he hit the ground as well, ducking his head and lifting his arms, shielding himself from both the flying cookies and any anticipated furious reactions. Lewis was still a ghost bound to the earth by rage and revenge, after all, and still had a tendency to blow up from time to time, unlike he ever had while he was alive. Usually it was at himself, over something he could no longer do as easily as he once had, but he and Arthur were still a little on the rocky side after the whole murder/attempted murder fiasco, so, Arthur wasn’t putting anything past the ghost.

However, instead of any further yelling besides his name, Arthur felt a few tiny hands poking at him, the tell-tale cooing of the deadbeats that still hung around Lewis like pets letting Arthur know they were gathered around him. “You okay?” Lewis asked as Arthur lowered his arms to peer at the little magenta ghosts that were trying in vain to help him get back up. Lewis was crouched in front of the blonde, feet planted firmly back on the ground as he frowned in concern at Arthur.

“Uh, y-yeah,” Arthur nodded, pushing himself back up to his feet with little aid from the deadbeats, but he gave them soft pats in thanks, regardless as they swirled around him. “Sorry about the cookies. I didn’t see you.”

“That will happen when you’re looking at your own feet,” Lewis joked, though the short laugh he gave was stilted as he stood as well, the deadbeats moving from Arthur to the scattered cookies, piling them onto the fallen tray. “Was there a reason you were examining the floor so intently?”

Arthur rubbed at his robotic arm absently, shooting Lewis an awkward smile as he shrugged. “Yeah. My star,” he said, watching the deadbeats rather than look up into Lewis’ unsettling black and magenta eyes, “I had it yesterday, and when I got dressed this morning it was nowhere to be found. Vivi thought Galahad had maybe taken it, but I’ve cleaned his whole cage and I still can’t find it. I was thinking maybe it fell off in the hallway or something.” He jerked with a sudden thought, looking up at Lewis with mild urgency, “Do you think one of the deadbeats would have taken it?”

Lewis looked startled by Arthur’s sudden change in demeanor, taking the tray of cookies from two of the deadbeats that lifted it from the floor. “What? Why would they have taken it?”

Arthur stared at Lewis for a long moment before shrinking back down with a sigh and another shrug, shaking his head a little. “No reason, I guess. I should keep looking,” he murmured, scooting around Lewis and padding down the hallway, eyes fixed back on the ground once more.

Once the blonde was out of sight, Lewis exchanged a glance with one of the deadbeats, looking guilty as he shifted the tray in his hands.

That night after ripping apart the entire apartment from top to bottom, Arthur had to concede that either Galahad had a hiding place for things he didn’t know about, a ghost was stealing his stuff, or he’d lost his pin long before he thought he had. Which was pretty much impossible as far as he was concerned, because it wasn’t just some random pin that he wouldn’t notice falling off his vest. It was his favorite, it was relatively large, and for a long while it was one of the few things he’d still had that Lewis had given, during their long search after the cave. And although Galahad was a scamp, Arthur doubted he would have taken something so important to Arthur. But then, Lewis was right as well. What reason did the deadbeats have to steal his things?

Arthur sighed as he slumped down onto the floor next to his bed, running his hands through his hair with a frustrated groan. Perhaps he was making a mountain out of a molehill, going on the way he was about a simple pin. It wasn’t like he couldn’t get a new one, he supposed, and it had been so long ago that Lewis had even given it to him, he doubted the ghost even remembered it. But, it had meant a lot to Arthur at the time. It had been before they graduated high school, and Lewis and Vivi hadn’t even started dating yet. Arthur was going through a slump, trying to figure out what he was going to do with his life, his aptitude for the mechanical having not yet quite hit home with him yet. And Lewis had shown up at the garage with a brilliant grin and some inspiring speech about aiming for the moon and ending up amongst the stars or some such nonsense, before bestowing the bright yellow pin onto Arthur. it was an anchor for him during those times where he felt lost.

A timid knock on his door made Arthur jump, startling as a deadbeat flew through the wood without waiting for an answer. “Come in,” he called as the deadbeat wound its way around his neck and settled there with a contented coo, making Arthur smile despite himself.

“Hey, Artie,” Lewis said softly as he entered the room, deeming to actually use the door as it was intended, rather than simply float through like his pesky deadbeats liked to. “You doing okay?”

Arthur shrugged, absently petting the little purple ghost wrapped around him. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

Lewis stood in the middle of the room for a long moment, looking around the mess that made it look like a tornado had swept through just the blondes room, papers and bit of mechanical things strewn about nearly every surface, save for the bed. “It certainly doesn’t look it,” Lewis finally said, picking his way through the mess to settle himself next to Arthur. “Did something else go missing?”

With a shake of his head Arthur replied with a quiet 'no’, dropping his hands into his lap.

“Well…it was just a pin, Arthur. We can get you a new one,” Lewis offered, only to jump as Arthur shot him an unexpected glare, before the blonde’s expression quickly morphed into one of apology.

“Sorry,” Arthur murmured, turning to stare at his clasped hands, “But, it wasn’t just a pin. It…it was my favorite pin. It was important to me.”

Lewis watched Arthur for a long moment, looking contrite, before he dropped his human guise and reached into his suit jacket, pulling the small yellow star from inside and offering it to Arthur. In turn, Arthur stared wide eyed down at Lewis’ large skeletal hand cradling one of his most prized possessions after the other offered to get him a new one.

“You-?!” Arthur gasped, barely flinching as he looked up at Lewis’ skeletal face with surprise and a little bit of betrayal. “Why?”

Lewis did his best to look apologetic in his spectral form, rolling the pin slightly between his fingers, before letting his human guise settle back over his bones so both he and Arthur would be more comfortable. “I didn’t think you’d miss it,” Lewis admitted with a small voice.

“Didn’t think I’d-Again, why?” Arthur snapped, smacking his good hand against his leg, causing the deadbeat to jerk a little in its place and chitter in annoyance.

Lewis shrugged, a blush on his cheeks as he stared down at the offending object still in his hand. “It took me a while to remember, after dying, some of the things that happened when we were younger. A lot of things faded behind the rage and disdain, so when things finally started coming back, I wanted something to help and make sure I wouldn’t forget again. It’s been so long since I gave this to you, I didn’t think you’d remember. I thought maybe you were just wearing it because you always did. You didn’t really seem that fond of it when I first gave it to you, so I thought that maybe you were just being nice by leaving it on your vest. But I remember picking it out at the store, and how happy I was to give it to you. I wanted to remember how happy I was back then, to help get rid of the anger I felt for so long. I didn’t think it still meant so much to you that you’d tear through the entire apartment to try and get it back.”

Arthur stared at Lewis for a long minute, finally taking the pin from Lewis’ fingers and putting it back in its proper place and giving it a little tug once it was secure to make sure it wouldn’t fall off easily. “Well. You were wrong,” he stated simply, giving the pin an affectionate little flick, “It’s one of the few things I have that I truly treasure. It’s gotten me through a lot of dark times. Especially when we were looking for you.”

A look of shame crossed Lewis’ face as he brought his knees up to his chest, nodding slightly. “I’m sorry, Arthur. If I’d known-”

“Let’s face it, Lew, one of your little 'friends’ would have stolen it for you if you hadn’t of taken it yourself,” Arthur interrupted with a short grin, patting the deadbeat now happily snoozing on his shoulder. A few minutes of silence passed between the two before Arthur spoke again. "Tell you what. How about, instead of trying to focus on things in the past, why don’t we try and do something new? We can go out and try to find something you actually can keep that won’t cause me to become an emotional wreck, okay?“

The startled laugh that escaped Lewis was well worth the sweaty palms Arthur got from speaking so bluntly to Lewis for the first time since before he’d died. “That sounds great, Artie,” Lewis said with a smile, pulling Arthur into a hug that caused the blonde to squeak and the deadbeat to finally leave the room with an angry trill at the two of them.


End file.
